When the Georgia Institute of Technology opened a logistics innovation center Aug. 20 in Costa Rica, the country's president turned out to personally offer his support. 

In a keynote speech at a launch event in San Jose, President Oscar Arias said Tech's expertise in supply chain management would usher in a new era of prosperity by helping Costa Rican companies better reach overseas markets with their products. 

"Today, as a nation, we change the course of our history by changing the course of our trade chains," he said. 

Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson traveled to Costa Rica to mark the occasion, which he said represents an emerging model in higher education that calls for universities to engage in building up the global communities where they work.

While Mr. Arias' seal of approval indicates its success with that model, Tech isn't the only Georgia institution employing it in Costa Rica.  A variety of schools are helping boost the small Central American nation's economy while providing their students with valuable international experience. 

Encouraged by beautiful landscapes, ease of travel and the allure of a foreign language and culture, Georgia universities have built a diverse array of programs in Costa Rica, a country of about 4.5 million people wedged between Nicaragua and Panama. 

University of Georgia leaders saw the country's educational potential eight years ago when they approved the purchase of a 155-acre plot in the Monteverde region in the country's rural northwest, said Quint Newcomer, UGA Costa Rica's director.

The land lay dormant for a few years but since 2005 has blossomed into a rural hub where students can gain experience across a variety of disciplines. 

With its stable democracy and educated population, Costa Rica has been a fertile place for UGA's programs to grow, Dr. Newcomer said.

He had no problem recruiting 30 competent local staff members. That was easy in Costa Rica but could've been difficult in some other areas of the world, like parts of Africa where American student exchange programs are similarly undeveloped, he said.

Costa Rica is also relatively close to Georgia - four hours by air from Atlanta to two Costa Rican cities on Delta Air Lines Inc. - and inexpensive compared to the European destinations where most students travel for overseas programs.

Many of UGA Costa Rica's programs – from landscape architecture, entomology, ornithology to an adventure trip for outdoor recreation majors – take advantage of the campus's natural setting, Dr. Newcomer said. 

Besides the fact that it borders the popular Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, 60 percent of the UGA campus's land is occupied by its own forest reserves, he added.  About 30 percent is dedicated to agricultural pursuits used both to teach students and to test methods that can be used to help local farmers improve their crop yields. 

But not everything is focused on the outdoors. Dr. Newcomer, who works at UGA in Athens but travels to Costa Rica frequently, has hosted literature and interracial communications classes there.  He has also helped law and business students find opportunities in San Jose, the capital.

In an interview at the Georgia Tech event in San Jose, Dr. Newcomer echoed Dr. Peterson's theme of engagement.

"Part of the University of Georgia's mission is outreach," Dr. Newcomer said. "UGA is really well known for that; I think it's one of our strong points back in Georgia, so we're bringing that same kind of thing down here."

Toward that goal, UGA Costa Rica has been in talks with EARTH University, a school that teaches its students practical entrepreneurship in agriculture. The two institutions are exploring the possibility of working together on water research and fish-farming projects.

EARTH, which has two campuses in Costa Rica, is also integrally connected with Georgia in another way: its funding arm is based in Atlanta. 

GlobalAtlanta visited EARTH's La Flor campus in Liberia, a city in Guanacaste province near Costa Rica's northwestern coast.  The nearly 4,000-acre plot is located on the former estate of Daniel Oduber, Costa Rica's president from 1974-78.  EARTH received the estate and surrounding farm as a donation in 2003 and has been steadily working to repurpose the land and facilities, which had fallen into disrepair after years of being unused.

Carlos Murrillo, EARTH La Flor's director, has an office in the late President Oduber's former study, which is connected to a meeting room that once served as the president's bedroom.  Classes currently meet in buildings that were part of the original compound, but construction is underway on new classrooms and dorms.

After investing millions in new roads and canals and replanting crops, La Flor's farm is a working model that teaches students how to build sustainable agricultural enterprises.  The university in 2007 reached an agreement to sell organically grown bananas to Whole Foods supermarkets in the U.S.  It also exported 65,000 boxes of mangoes to Europe last year.  The goal is for students to learn profitable methods that they can take back to their home communities to create jobs and opportunities.

Students come from all over the globe, thanks to a recruitment process that targets troubled areas where agricultural expertise would make the largest impact, Mr. Murrillo said. 

Conducting personal interviews with students around the world, maintaining rice, cashew, mango and sugar cane plantations and running a university gets expensive, Mr. Murrillo said. 

That makes the EARTH University Foundation in Atlanta all the more important.

Mr. Murrillo said the foundation chose Atlanta because of the "good friends" and connectivity there.

"It is a central location that allows us to do a lot of travel easily from any of the states and Costa Rica," said Mr. Murrillo.

He added that the international airport in Liberia - five minutes away from the La Flor campus - has a nonstop to flight to Atlanta on Delta.

That flight, which has helped funnel investment and tourists to Guanacaste province, exists largely thanks to efforts by H.G. "Pat" Pattillo, a DeKalb County native who founded Decatur-based Pattillo Construction Co. 

Mr. Pattillo, who owns Hacienda Pinilla, a 4,500-acre development with resorts and residences on the coast of Guanacaste, is also contributing to Georgia's educational connections in Costa Rica through a foundation of his own, the Fundacion Progreso Guanacaste, which focuses on improving health care, education and housing in the rural province. 

The foundation underwrites a seven-week Berry College study abroad program that brings students from the private Rome, Ga., college to teach English at schools in the 40 communities where it works.

Mr. Pattillo's foundation also provides college scholarships to local students, said Yanith Ruiz, the director of the foundation and a native of Santa Cruz, the nearest city to Hacienda Pinilla.

Thirty-six recipients are studying at Georgia universities and 19 in Costa Rica. The scholarship programs began in 2005, so the foundation saw its first class of scholarship-funded students graduate this year, Ms. Ruiz said. 

She attributed Mr. Pattillo's generosity to his affection for the region and its people.

"I think he fell in love with this land a long time ago, so he wants to give something to the community," she said. 

Mr. Pattillo, 83, says he was just responding to a need.

"There's a 95 percent literacy rate in the country, but that's just through the fifth grade," Mr. Pattillo told GlobalAtlanta.  "Only two out of 10 students in Guanacaste finish high school." 

Mr. Pattillo said the central Costa Rican government has abandoned some rural schools. Many are more than a half-century old and are in dire need of maintenance. 

He hopes that the foundation's work building lunchrooms and bathroom facilities will be an example for the government, inspiring it to provide suitable learning environments for students and better salaries for teachers. 

Rosemary Rodriguez, principal of the Puerto Rico School in the town of La Gunilla, said each year the foundation provides musical instruments, books and English teachers through the Berry College program. 

Efforts like these are helpful because the government's contributions aren't always sufficient for her school, which has about 140 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, she said.

"The help from the private institutions is always welcome.  The government helps the schools, but it's not enough to develop all the subjects and all the operational work here," Ms. Rodriguez said.

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